A man was rushed to hospital this morning after he sustained serious injuries to his wrist on a fishing vessel off the coast of Cork.

The man, believed to be a Spanish fisherman, called emergency services in Madrid after he began to lose the blood supply to his hand.

The Valentia Coastguard was called and the man was rescued from the fishing vessel.

“We got the request from Medico Madrid the medical centre there, could we do this because it was urgent,” a spokesperson for the Irish Coastguard told Independent.ie.

“It was just a hand injury but there was a big swelling on the hand and they were worried that maybe the blood supply was cut off and if that happened of course he could lose a hand.

“He was about 75 miles south of Mizen Head, south of the Cork coastline.”

The spokesperson for the Coastguard said that the man arrived in Castletownbere this morning around 5.30am after poor weather conditions rendered attempts to lift him in a rescue helicopter impossible.

“They actually sent out one of the Waterford Coastguard helicopters, Rescue 117, but the weather was atrocious. There was a big swell out there and high seas so they couldn’t lift him off. They had to come into Castletownbere then.”

After the helicopter was forced to return to shore, a local man launched a smaller boat and collected the injured man in the harbour.

There was an ambulance waiting on the dock for the injured man and he was transported to Cork University Hospital. The man’s condition is not known.